December 19, 2024 a thought for today, Words are the voice of the heart. Chinese Proverb

My first upload for yesterday was “red and green”. This is one of the gifts I have with a green bow and under the green branches of the Christmas tree. 

The second upload for yesterday was “tree”. This is one of the trees I have found as
I travel through the neighborhood. 

The last challenge upload for yesterday was also assigned as “tree”. This one is also in the neighborhood.  An everyday lawn tree decorated in Christmas attire. 

Life today. I now have both the Sunday bulletin and the Christmas Eve bulletin done. I am still working on the poinsettia pages. I am waiting for the rest of the information to be sent to me. 

We are going to get my car today. I was hoping to do it this morning.  I am a “morning” person. Lowell had another obligation so it was moved to early this afternoon. I am getting a few things done until he gets here to pick me up. 

The first upload for today is “winter”. We don’t have any snow right now so I chose photos from my  archives. This on is of the city park just down the street from my home. 

I plan to go to the church tomorrow to do the printing. Then I will take the loaner car back to Enterprise. 

All of the peppermint plants have been passed out and a few of the Christmas calendars are also passed out. Christmas is almost here. Every year I am newly surprised at just how busy this month gets. This year has the added “business” with the car and the computer. I am looking forward to quieter day after Christmas already. 

The next upload for today is also “winter”. It is also from my archives since there is no snow typical of a winter scene in Ohio. This one is of my front porch and part of the neighborhood. 

The word today is race. Selfishness is the greatest curse of the human race. William E. Gladstone.  Viewed freely, the English language is the accretion and growth of every dialect, race, and range of time, and is both the free and compacted composition of all. Walt Whitman.  Music is the voice that tells us that the human race is greater than it knows. Napoleon Bonaparte.  He piled upon the whale's white hump the sum of all the general rage and hate felt by his whole race from Adam down; and then, as if his chest had been a mortar, he burst his hot heart's shell upon it. Herman Melville.  The great want of our race is perfect educators to train new-born minds, who are infallible teachers of what is right and true. Catharine Beecher.  It is the mark of a great man that he puts to flight all ordinary calculations. He is at once sublime and touching, childlike and of the race of giants. Honore de Balzac.  Architecture has recorded the great ideas of the human race. Not only every religious symbol, but every human thought has its page in that vast book. Victor Hugo.  Slow but steady wins the race. Aesop.  The race of mankind would perish did they cease to aid each other. We cannot exist without mutual help. All therefore that need aid have a right to ask it from their fellow-men; and no one who has the power of granting can refuse it without guilt. Walter Scott.  The propensity to truck, barter and exchange one thing for another is common to all men, and to be found in no other race of animals. Adam Smith.  If ye despise the human race, and mortal arms, yet remember that there is a God who is mindful of right and wrong. Virgil.  Jesus Christ belonged to the true race of prophets. He saw with open eye the mystery of the soul. Drawn by its severe harmony, ravished with its beauty, he lived in it and had his being there. Alone in all history, he estimated the greatness of man. Ralph Waldo Emerson.  The human race is governed by its imagination. Napoleon Bonaparte. 

The last upload for today is “wrapping”. As I mentioned in another message, I don’t do my “wrapping” any more with the use of decorative bags. I do have this bit of wrapping material here in the house. 

Article: There may not be any information here that is new but maybe some thought to refresh about winter illnesses. In this article a professor of nursing writes about the “science behind the season”. She starts out by mentioned what many say “Don’t go outside in the winter with your hair wet or without a coat; you’ll catch a cold.” She goes on to say it is more complicated than that. “Being cold isn’t why you get a cold. But it is true that cold weather makes it easier to catch respiratory viruses such as the cold and flu”. Viruses like rhinovirus, causes cold, flu, and COVID  “remain infectious longer and replicate faster in colder temperatures and at lower humidity levels”. That along with being inside and in “close” contact with others result more in the spread of disease. It was also mentioned in the article that COVID is not typically a “cold-weather respiratory virus” though virus transmission in easier in the cold. Cold weather “can change the outer membrane of the influenza virus, making it more solid and rubbery” making it easier to cause transmission from one person to another. Adding to the cold temperatures causing these problems is dry air.  The article shares that with “dry winter air” infections remain longer. The explication for this in this article is: dry air, which is common in the winter, causes the water found in respiratory droplets to evaporate more quickly resulting in smaller particles. The smaller particles make for longer lasting and farther traveling droplets in coughs and sneezes. The immune “response” in the cold air allows the virus to “take hold”. Wearing a cover over the nose and mouth assist in the effort to deal with the spread. One more problem with disease in the cold weather of winter is less sunlight. Less sunlight means less vitamin D, “essential for immune system health”. Still more additions to the effects that come with winter is less physical activity. So some of the obvious answers are washing hands often, stay hydrated, eat a more well balances diet (with vitamin D a part of it), stay active, consider a humidifier. The article also suggests getting the necessary flu shots. 

Maybe spaghetti in meat sauce for dinner.

Joy                                    a typical city scene